Christmas in February???

Yes, it is February, and I am just now finally getting around to posting about our Christmas holidays. Oh well, better late than never right?  So, Merry Christmas from the Knopps!

I am a Christmas nut.  I love EVERYTHING about it, and I decorate like a madwoman.  Except for this year!  This year, I went as minimalistic as possible seeing as how Myers was only 1 week old when I decided to decorate.  Thankfully, my parents were still here with us so my Dad did all of the outside decorating for me.  Reagan and I put up the two Christmas trees in the house, hung a wreath on the front door, and called it done!  Ryan put the final touch on both of the trees by helping Reagan to place the stars.  Honestly, I may consider a more simple Christmas every year from now on!

Reagan brought home two new Christmas decorations from preschool this year, one of which we will be able to enjoy year after year from now.  We placed the new wreath picture frame ornament directly below the pine cone ornament that she brought home last year.  I have a feeling that her tree will one day be filled with items that she has made.  However, the gingerbread house that she made out of a milk carton will not be around next Christmas... it slowly lost it's edible decorations until there wasn't much left to the house!

Before my parents left back in early December, we all bundled up to go have our annual visit with Santa.  My favorite Santa can be found at the home of a local family who decorates their entire front acre of land with millions of Christmas lights.  In the center of the grand display is a giant blue fairy-tale type castle where the most magnificent Santa sits on his giant throne to welcome the kids. Trust me when I tell you that he is fabulous!  This year's visit to Santa was even more special and exciting as Santa got to meet our new little man Myers!

Not long after Thanksgiving, Nokee made his first appearance of the season.  "Who is Nokee?" you ask... he's our Elf on the Shelf!  My parents gave us the book called "The Elf on the Shelf" for Christmas two years ago, and we were very excited to use it again this year. The book explains how Santa can't manage all of the Christmas magic by himself, so he has elves who help him. Santa sends a magical elf to all of his most special boys and girls to watch over them and to report back to Santa each night. The book even came with an elf! Reagan named her elf Nokee (short for Pinocchio) the first morning that she discovered him last year. She was a seasoned pro about Nokee this year, as she knew that she could not touch him or else he would lose his magical elf powers. She also knew that he would watch over her throughout the day and report back to Santa each night when he flew home to the North Pole. Nokee returned to our house every morning again this year, and every morning he landed in a new spot.  Reagan would race down the stairs to find him each day! We were sad to see our little elf fly home on Christmas Eve, but we know that he will be back next year to spread more Christmas cheer in our house. (Plus that gives me and Ryan another whole year to come up with some new and fun elf hiding/landing spots!!!)

Reagan Marie was one busy little girl on Christmas Eve.  She started the evening by putting out the bag of reindeer food that we had made earlier in the week for Santa's reindeer.   Everyone leaves out goodies for Santa, but the reindeer are the ones who do all the hard work of pulling that sleigh across the sky. This year we spread reindeer food across our front lawn so that the reindeer could snack while Santa went down our chimney.  Within only a few minutes, our yard was COVERED with oats, glitter, sprinkles, and sequins.  The oats were for the reindeer to eat... the rest was to make the yard bright and shiny to make sure the reindeer could find our house!  Reagan loved running through the yard spreading a little extra Christmas magic that night...

Not to worry, we still put out goodies for Santa as well.  Reagan and Ryan had made a delicious plate of gingerbread men earlier in the week, and we chose an extra special one for Santa.  The rest of the snacks, the big man chose himself.  When we were visiting with Santa with my parents, Santa specifically told Reagan to leave him several pieces of small oranges along with a cup of water.  He said his tummy often felt sick from eating so much milk and cookies on Christmas Eve, and he would really appreciate a healthy snack from Reagan.  She made sure to follow his request precisely!

The first thing Reagan does on Christmas morning is to look and see if Santa came the night before. She makes sure that she has a pile of presents, and then she runs into the kitchen to see if he drank and ate the goodies that she left for him.  This year was no different, except for one thing... it was VERY cold downstairs.  Santa enjoyed his goodies, and he left a big pile of presents for Reagan and Myers, but he must have left our house through our chimney in a hurry because he left the door to our wood burning stove standing wide open.  We all had a good laugh at how silly Santa can be!

The Santa Bag is a tradition that we started two years ago, and it is one that we will continue for years to come. All of Reagan's toys from Santa (that will fit) are placed in the Santa sack and left in the middle of the living room for her to unpack.  She was a little nervous this Christmas morning as there was only one item that she had asked Santa for... THE WALKING PUPPY.  She was very worried that Santa wouldn't be able to find it or that he wouldn't remember what she had asked for.  As she opened up her presents (and presents for Myers) out of the bag, I could tell that she was becoming more and more anxious.  Of course, the last present at the bottom of the bag would be THE present for her!  And of course she did the same thing this year as she did last year when she got to the bottom of the pile... she went into the bag just to make sure there wasn't anymore gifts!  Myers on the other hand slept through most of Christmas morning and was content to let Reagan handle all of the action for him.  He did finally wake up enough for me to get a cute pic of the two of them in their matching pajamas!

I got an extra special surprise from Santa Christmas morning... a new camera!  The picture of the two kids in their matching pj's above is one of the first pictures that I took using it.  Rest assured that there will be a post on this blog in the very near future completely devoted to nothing but my new rig!

We spent the rest of Christmas day playing with all of our new toys and enjoying being at home.  The next day, Boxing Day, we did a little shopping with all of the other crazies out there, and then we joined all of Ryan's family for a huge feast.  Christmas dinner with the Knopps was as entertaining as always, and Reagan loved spending some time with all of her cousins.  Myers even got in on the action with the rest of the kids!

By noon the day after boxing day, the 27th, I had completely UN-decorated our house and had stored all of the decorations away for next year.  Yep, Christmas had come to an end!

Be prepared to see a few more back-dated posts over the next few days.  I think I have about 10 or so posts that I need to do to get caught up to the present.  Stick with me... I will get there!  Myers has now settled into a daily routine with a 3 hour nap right smack dab in the middle of the day, so I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular schedule as well!